Collapsible wire bound box or crate



July 13, 1937.

Filed Jime 29, 1936 INVENTOR.

ATTORNEYS.

Patented July 13, 1937 UNITED STT@ rrr George El. Gardner, indianapolis,Ind., assigner to Indianapolis Wire Bound Box Company,

Indianapolis, llnd., a

Application June 29,

8 Claims.

binding Wires are connected together, the resulting structure may becollapsed without separation of the binding wires and thereafterreturned to expanded relationship.

A further object of my invention is to provide a cleat the opposite endsof which are so formed that, when a multiplicity of such cleats arearranged end to end in alternating reverse relationship and connected bya binding wire the ends of said binding wire maybe connected togetherand the resulting structure may be Caused to assume either an expandedrelationship wherein each cleat lies at an angle to the immediatelyadjacent cleat, or may be collapsed to a position where hali of thecleats lie parallel with the other haii'` of the cleats, all withoutseparation of the ends of the binding wire.

The accompanying drawing illustrates my invention:

Fig. lis an edge elevation oi a crate embodying my invention with theelements thereoi' in assembled but collapsed relationship.

Fig. 2 is a similar elevation with the parts in expanded relationship.

Fig. 3 a perspective view of the mating ends of two cleats constructedin accordance with my `invention to permit swinging movement oi' one Liocleat relative to the other from an angular relationship to a parallelsuperposed relationship.

Fig. 4 a perspective `view of a pair of mating cleat ends of a modifiedform permitting swinging movement of one cleat relative to the otherfrom an angular relationship to an aligned relationship.

Fig. faplan view of a pair of mating cleat ends of the character shownin Fig. 3 withthe cleats in initial aligned relationship whichrelationship `is established during the fabrication of the blank, theconnecting binding wire being omitted for the sake of clearness.

Fig. 6 an edge elevation of adjacent ends of mating cleats-oi thecharacter shown in Figs. 3

corporation or' Indiana 1936, Serial No. 87,878

and 5, together with a portion of the connecting binding wire, and

Fig. l is a fragmentary view of a modified form of cleat constructionfor outwardly collapsing corners.

In the drawing Ill, ID indicate the cleats, which are identical exceptfor variations in lengths to conform to the desired dimensions of thecleated structure. Each of these cleats, at one end for half or slightlymore than half of its width, is beveled at II beginning at line I2 atthe inner face of the cleat at a distance spaced from the end of thecleat approximately the thickness of the cleat and ending at the line itin the outer face of the cleat more distantly spaced from the end of thecleat than the tip I2. The angle of this bevel is conveniently, thoughnot necessarily, approximately 4:5 degrees. The above mentioned bevelingof a portion of the width of the cleat, as above described, produces atongue I4, the inner corner of which is dubbed off at I5 to permit twocleats so formed, when reversely arranged, as indicated in Figs. 5 and6, to be interdigitated or overlapped to an extent where the blunt tipIt will overlie the beveled surface III of the adjacent cleat and thetip l2 of the beveled portion of the said adjacent cleat may lie closelyadjacent and nearly in contact with the base i519 of the dubbed offportion of the lirst mentioned cleat, a similar relationship of saidparts being also `established between the second mentioned and firstmentioned cleats.

The other end of each cleat Iii may be simply beveled, at l5 degrees ora little more, as indicated at 2li. Preferably this beveling is at anangle slightly in excess of 45 degrees for a four-sided crate in order`to make possible a slight iiexibility at the corner formed by twomating cleats having thisV formation.

l w Lateral overlap oi the cleats at this co-ordina- 'tion may beprovided, if desired, half the width of each cleat being beveled at da`(Fig. 4i) as just noted, while the other half of one cleat is leftunbeveled to form the tongue 2| andthe adjacent cleat is back-cut ornotched vto form the square shoulder 22 to mate with the inner face ofthe tongue 2l. From a commercial aspect this arrangement is probably notvery desirable because it involves a dilierent formation for thesemating ends of two cleats.

O For a four-sided crate, two or more series of four cleats I@ areconnected by a binding wire 3i), preferably with sheet material 3linterposed between the binding wires and the outer face of the cleatsIl), said cleats i@ being alternately reversed with relation to eachother so that there will be two diagonally disposed pairs of matingcleat ends, two of the character illustrated in Figs. 3 and 6, and twoof the bevel 28 type, the tips of the bevels 20 being closely adjacentand the tongues I4 being overlapped as shown in Fig. 5.

With such an arrangement a fiat blank may be produced which may be thenfolded to the relationship shown in Fig. 2 whereupon the opposite endsof each binding wire may be connected together as indicated at E in Fig.2, each wire being drawn taut by this connecting operation to bring theinner faces of diagonally opposite cleats I 0 into contact with theimmediately adjacent tips I2, the binding wire diagonally oppositecorners A, A being drawn between the overlapped tongues I4 so as to holdthe inner face of each cleat tightly against the tip I2 of theimmediately adjacent cleat at the corners.

After this assembly has been accomplished the crate may be collapsed, tothe relationship illustrated in Fig. l, where half of the cleats liesuperposed upon the other half of the cleats, and the expandedrelationship may be reestablished as shown in Fig. 2, by a reversal ofthe collapsing operation.

The formation of the cleats at the corners B, B is such, as will bereadily noted, that the end cleats (the vertical cleats in Fig. 2) maynot be swung counterclockwise but may be swung clockwise.

In other words, in collapsing the structure the cleats at the twodiagonally opposite corners B may be swung from an angular relationshipto an aligned relationship, whereas the cleats at the other twodiagonally opposite corners A may be swung to a parallel superposedrelationship. The ultimate results attainable with the above describedstructure are the same as are obtainable with the structure which is thesubject matter of my Patent 2,039,273 but specifically the cleatformation at the corners A differs.

The sheet material 3l is interposed between the outer faces of thecleats and the binding wire. At the corners B the sheet material may beset close to the tips of the bevels 20 while at the corners A the sheetmaterial should be set back slightly from the edges I3 so that, when theends of the binding wires are connected, portions of the wires, at thecorners B, will lie closely along the bevel surfaces I I. The cleats,for the corners B, may be formed as indicated in Fig. 7, with squareends, which, when the flat blank is forme-d, will be spaced acleat-thickness apart to permit establishment of the relationship yshownin Fig. 7.

In the claims wire is used to include a band, strap or other wireequivalent of suitable binding material.

I claim as my invention:

1. A container structure comprising four cleats connected in series by abinding wire associated with the outer faces of said cleats, each ofsaid cleats at one end having a part-width tongue portion subtended by apart-width portion beveled outwardly beginning at an edge in the innerface spaced from the tip of the cleat and the tongueportion of its widthdubbed off inwardly, the said tongue-portions of two adjacent cleatsbeing overlapped beyond the inner-face tips of the beveled portions ofthe cleats.

2. A'container structure comprising four cleats connected in series by abinding wire associated with the outer faces of said cleats withinterposed sheet material, each of said cleats at one end having apart-width tongue portion subtended by a part-width portion beveledoutwardly beginning at an edge in the inner face spaced from the tip ofthe cleat and the tongue-portion of its width dubbed off inwardly, thesaid tongue-portions. of two adjacent cleats being overlapped beyond theinner-face tips of the beveled portions of the cleats.

3. A container structure comprising four cleats connected in series by abinding wire associated with the outer faces of said cleats, each ofsaid cleats at one end having a part-width tongue portion subtended by apart-width portion beveled outwardly beginning at an edge in the innerface spaced from the tip of the cleat and the tongue-portion of itswidth dubbed off inwardly, the said tongue-portions of two adjacentcleats being overlapped beyond the inner-face tips of the beveledportions of the cleats, each cleat at one end being formed for matingangular relation with another cleat to limit swing of one cleat relativeto the other in one direction.

4. A container structure comprising four cleats connected in series by abinding wire associated with the outer faces of said cleats withinterposed sheet material, each of said cleats at one end having apart-width tongue portion subtended by a part-width portion beveledoutwardly beginning at an edge in the inner face spaced from the tip ofthe cleat and the tongueportion of its width dubbed off inwardly, thesaid tongue-portions of two adjacent cleats being overlapped beyond theinner-face tips of the beveled portions of the'cleats, each cleat at oneend being formed for mating angular relation with another cleat to limitswing of one cleat relative to the other in one direction.

5. A container structure comprising four cleats connected in series byan endless binder associated with the outer faces of the cleats, each ofsaid cleats at one end having a part-width tongue portion subtended by apart-width portion beveled outwardly beginning at an edge in the innerface spaced from the tip of the cleat and the tongue-portion of itswidth dubbed off inwardly, the said tongue portions of alternate pairsof cleats being overlapped beyond the `innerface tips of the beveledportions-of the cleats.

6. A container structure comprising four cleats connected in series byan endless binder associated with the outer faces of the cleats withinterposed sheet material, each of said cleats at one end having apart-width tongue portion subtended by a part-width portion beveledoutwardly beginning at an edge in the inner face spaced from the -tip ofthe cleat and thev tongue-portion of its width dubbed off inwardly, thesaid tongueportions of alternate pairs of cleats being overlapped beyondthe inner-face tips of the beveled portions of the cleats.

.7. A container structure comprising four cleats connected in series bya binding wire associated with the outer faces of said cleats, each ofsaid cleats at one end having a part-width tongue portion subtended by apart-width portion beveled outwardly beginning at an edge inthe innerface spaced from the tip of the cleat and the tongue-portion of itswidth dubbed oir inwardly, the said tongue-portions of two adjacentcleat at one end being formed for mating angular association with thecleat adjacent that endv to limit swing of one cleat relative to theother inwardlyv beyond a desired angular relationship.

8. A container structure comprising four cleats connected in series by abinding wire associated with the outer faces of said cleats withinterposed sheet material, each of said cleats at one end having apart-width tongue portion subtended by a part-width portion beveledoutwardly beginning at an edge in the inner face spaced from l0 the tipof the cleat and the tongue-portion of its width dubbed 01T inwardly,the said tongue-portions of two adjacent cleats being overlapped beyondthe inner-face tips of the beveled portions of the cleats, each cleat atone end being formed for mating angular association with the cleatadjacent that end to limit swing of one cleat relative to the otherinwardly beyond a desiredangular relationship.

GEORGE E. GARDNER.

